612 



NEW YORK. 



debt, $4,964,304.87; aggregate sinking fund, 

 $3,163,722.49; total debt unprovided for, but 

 not yet due, $1,800,581.38. 



The balance in the treasury on Oct. 1, 1889, 

 was $5,426,609.05, the total receipts for the fiscal 

 year ensuing were $18,212,399.49, and the total 

 ^expenditures $17,446,854.70. The total amount 

 expended in the construction of the new Capitol 

 building to Sept. 30, 1890, has been $18,568,677.82. 



For 1890 the assessed valuation of property 

 was $3,683,653,062, of which the value of real 

 estate was $3,298,323,931, and of personal estate, 

 $385,329,131. This is an increase over the fig- 

 ures of 1889 of $85,152,730 in the value of realty 

 and $31,071,575 in the value of personalty. The 

 rate of State taxation was 2-34 mills, -which pro- 

 duced a revenue of $8,619,748.17 devoted to the 

 following purposes : Schools, $3,830,999.19 ; ca- 

 nals, including canal debt, $2,210,191.84; gen- 

 eral purposes, $5,578,557.14. This rate is much 

 lower than the rate for 1889. The reduction is 

 due to the fact that by reason of executive dis- 

 approval (after the adjournment of the^ Legisla- 

 ture of 1889) of various appropriations amount- 

 ing in the aggregate to over $1,800,000 there 

 was left a surplus of that amount in the treas- 

 ury, which was utilized in 1890 in lessening 

 the amount necessary to be raised for the fiscal 

 year, and because of the further fact that the 

 assessed valuation of taxable property had been 

 increased as above shown. 



The law for taxing collateral inheritances and 

 gifts is now generally understood throughout the 

 State, and is uniformly respected and enforced. 

 The courts have settled most of its mooted and 

 important provisions, so that the system is sub- 

 stantially established as part of our taxing sys- 

 tem. Only large estates pay this tax, legacies 

 and inheritances for less than $500 being exempt. 

 The tax collected for the year 1889 amounted to 

 $1,075,692.25, and for the year 1890 to $1,117,- 

 637.70, an increase of $41.945.45. 



County debts. The total debt of New York 

 counties is $10,064,372, a decrease of $2,341,936 

 in ten years. Of this total, $9,087,839 is a bonded 

 debt and $976,533 a floating debt. Twenty-three 

 of the 60 counties have no debt. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature of 

 1890 was in session from Jan. 7 till May 9, 

 eighteen weeks. Much of the time in the earlier 

 days was spent upon a wrangle over the World's 

 Fair. The Governor refused to sign nearly 200 

 bills that were left in his hands. The total num- 

 ber of new laws was 568. 



The rate of taxation for the year is smaller than for 

 many years, owing partly to an excess of funds raised 

 in 1889 through appropriations that were not signed, 

 and partly to smaller appropriations than the average 

 for 1890. An appropriation of $365.000 was made to 

 resume work on the new Capitol. A large portion of 

 this was for repairs to the Assembly chamber and for 

 ventilation. The bills requiring a census of the State 

 and a constitutional convention failed to pass. An in- 

 quiry showed that the cost of investigations for the 

 past ten years was over $400,000. A commission has 

 been appointed to determine the status of the Cayuga 

 Indians^ but a bill to divide the Indian reservations 

 of the Stato among the individual Indians was not 

 signed. A law was passed for the prevention of brib- 

 ery on the part of public officials, and another mak- 

 ing it a misdemeanor for public officers to take part 

 in a public contract. The printing laws were amended 

 so that all the State reports will hereafter be distrib- 



uted in all the public departments. The villages of 

 Corning and Gloversville were chartered as cities. A 

 long investigation was begun, early in the session, 

 into the municipal government of New York city, 

 which, it is claimed, has led to important results; but 

 this is also denied. A commission was created to in- 

 quire into the expediency of consolidating the munici- 

 palities of the State of New York occupying the sev- 

 eral islands in the harbor of New York. The com- 

 mission consists of six persons appointed by the 

 Governor, the State Engineer, and Surveyor, and one 

 person to be designated by each of the following au- 

 thorities : The Mayor of New York, the Mayor of 

 Brooklyn, and the Board of Supervisors of Westches- 

 ter, Queens, Kings, and Kichmond Counties. Impor- 

 tant amendments were made to the charters of Bmg- 

 hamton, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Elmira, and Troy. A 

 new law provides that the Sheriff of New York Coun- 

 ty shall hereafter have a salary instead of fees. The 

 city of Syracuse was allowed to draw water from 

 Skaneateles Lake under control of the State authori- 

 ties, so that the supply for the canals shall not be 

 made less. Glens Falls is allowed an additional sup- 

 ply of water, and steps were taken to improve the 

 service of Schenectady. 



The city of Lockport is allowed to issue $125,000 

 in bonds for new sites and school-houses. The city 

 of Buffalo is allowed to bond itself in $150,000 for 

 new sites and buildings. The Young Men's Associa- 

 tion of Albany is allowed to hold certain property ex- 

 empt from taxation. A law was passed providing 

 that trustees in rural districts shall not hire teachers 

 for less than ten weeks. An enabling act was passed 

 for New York city in regard to sites for school-houses, 

 and more lectures are to be given under the operation 

 of present laws for working men and working women. 

 An important bill was passed providing for fire es- 

 capes on school- houses more than two stories high, 

 New York and Brooklyn being exempted from its 

 provisions. Normal-school appropriations were passed 

 as follow: New Faltz, $10,000; Oneonta, $40,000; 

 Lockport, $6,000 ; Plattsburg, $25,000 ; Fredonia, 

 $61,000. The appropriations for the instruction of 

 teachers have been doubled so as to increase the num- 

 ber of training classes in academies and union schools. 

 An easier method of distributing the school moneys 

 has been enacted into a law. Another law prevents 

 special legislation in the future for extraordinary pur- 

 poses. It allows the buying of new sites and the 

 building of school-houses without coming to the 

 Legislature as formerly. 



The Governor signed a bill providing that all cor- 

 porations shall pay the wages of their employes week- 

 ly after July 1, 1890. The Chief Factory Inspector was 

 allowed to appoint eight female factory inspectors, at 

 salaries of $1,000 yearly. Another law amerded tho 

 Eevised Statutes relative to exemption of household 

 furniture and working tools from distress for rent 

 and sale under execution. Still anothei included vet- 

 erans of the Mexican War among honorably dis- 

 charged soldiers who shall have preference in being 

 employed by the State. The question of better se- 

 curity for wages was covered by a new law, which 

 amends the Code of Civil Procedure relative to actions 

 by female employes in justices' courts in the city of 

 Brooklyn so that such employes may secure their 

 wages more easily. 



The penalty for violating the milk-can law has been 

 increased so that suits may be taken to the Supreme 

 Court. Experiments in fertilizers are to be continued, 

 and safeguards are provided for their use in this 

 State. The Mase dog-tax law of 1889 was repealed. 

 Justices of the peace may order dogs to be killed for 

 attacking persons and animals on the public high- 

 ways. The law relating to highways through vine- 

 yards has been repealed. More safeguards have been 

 thrown about the use of skim milk. Horticultural 

 and agricultural societies have been exempted froni 

 the corporation tax law. More prompt payments of 

 receipts from the Ives Pool law are to be made to the 

 State Agricultural Society. 



